Women In Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique

During the 1950s a woman was seen as someone striving to become the perfect feminine entity, and this was expected by others just as much as themselves. Even though the majority responded to this expected image in a condescending way, they still felt something missing, which caused many women to be miserable. This particular predicament of women is especially well explained in Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique. The 1950s was an awkward moment for women precisely because of the missing something which they felt. However, while it was an awkward moment for women in history, it was also a turning point for them.

Women throughout history were living in a society, for the majority, dominated by men, but the 1950s was the beginning of a transition

They were seen as the ones who developed the next generation. They were raised to be good mothers and wives and bring up their daughters to do the same and to bring up their sons to be good men that will make good choices as leaders. It was this logic that made it difficult for women to do anything other than what society expected of them. If they weren’t married or raising children then, they were considered to not be doing their part. If they were pursuing an education (for reasons other than finding a husband) they were considered to be lacking as a woman and or were pitied (Friedan

This also provides further evidence that women were living in a society dominated by men, and if a woman was to live as society told her she would not be complete. The latter however, would be a woman who wanted more than what society had to offer, but not allowed or made exceedingly difficult to achieve it by society. All this is mentioned in The Feminine Mystique, which accurately portrays women’s struggles in the